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Sunday, May 27, 2012

Proponents of allowing observant Muslim female soccer
players to wear a head dress and anti-autocratic protesters in the Middle East
and North Africa are running up against similar conservative attempts to roll
back their achievements. Ironically, they are both confronting alliances that
at times cut across confessional boundaries.

While the battle to secure the goals of successful protests
in post-revolt Egypt, Tunisia and Libya has largely moved from the street to
the polling station and backroom horse trading, the campaign for a woman’s head
dress on the pitch that meets security and safety standards is being waged in
the secretive board rooms of authorities that govern association soccer.

While protesters in the Middle East and North Africa have
learnt the hard way that toppling an autocrat is but the first step to ensuring
greater freedom and social justice, pro-head dress campaigners are discovering
that tentative board decisions are no more than tentative and open to challenge.
That is even truer given world soccer body FIFA’s lack of transparency and
accountability and its failure at times to avoid conflicts of interest.

FIFA Executive Committee member, medical doctor and head of the
soccer body’s medical committee Michel D’Hooghe, in the latest twist in the
campaign for observant Muslim female soccer player’s rights, has thrown into
doubt a decision last March by the International Football Association Board
(IFAB) that sets the rules for association soccer to temporarily allow the
wearing of a head dress that meets safety and security criteria while various
designs and models are tested. IFAB decided at the meeting that it would take
its final decision in July based on the testing results.

Speaking at a news conference at last week’s FIFA congress
in Budapest, Dr. D’Hooghe, in a sudden about face withdrew from his earlier
backing of the IFAB decision saying that “we have received some samples and
some doctors, including from the Muslim countries, said they (headscarves)
represented a danger. When a girl is running at speed someone can hit the head
scarf and that can lead to head lesions,” he said. Dr D’Hooghe suggested that
further testing may be needed.

It was not immediately clear what prompted Dr. D’Hooghe’s
turnaround and he did not respond to requests for comment.

Dr. D’Hooghe was a co-drafter and signatory of a statement that
favoured allowing a head dress issued last October at a meeting in Amman of
soccer executives, referees, players and this reporter convened by FIFA Vice
President Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein, a half-brother of Jordanian King Abdullah
who campaigned for his soccer post on a platform that called for greater women’s
rights.

The statement defined the hijab, a head dress that covers a
woman’s hair, neck and ears in accordance with Muslim custom as a cultural
rather than a religious issue. “The hijab issue has taken centre stage in
football circles in recent years due to the increasing popularity of women’s
football worldwide. It is a cultural issue that not only affects the game, but
also impacts society and sports in general. It is not limited to Asia, but
extends to other continents as well,” the statement said.

It called on FIFA to articulate a clear policy that
“avoid(s) any form of discrimination or exclusion of football players due to
cultural customs” and establishes the pitch as “a forum for cultural exchange
rather than conflict.”

Dr. D’Hooghe, one of FIFA’s longest serving executive
committee members, has since reportedly denied involvement in the drafting of
the statement or having agreed to sign it.

Proponents of the head dress believe that Dr. D’Hooghe’s
turnaround and the effort to backtrack on IFAB’s decision – employing medical
arguments much like the English Football Association did almost a century ago
when it banned women’s soccer – strengthens an uncoordinated scala of conservative
anti-Muslim, sexist, feminist and conservative Muslim opposition to the head
dress by disparate parties that each have different interests.

Saudi Arabia, the world’s most conservative Muslim nation, has
privately argued against the IFAB decision because it undermines the kingdom’s rejection
of women’s sports in general and soccer in particular. IFAB’s endorsement came
at a moment that Saudi Arabia, the only nation unlikely to be represented by
women at this summer’s Olympics, is under mounting pressure from the
International Olympic Committee (IOC) as well as human rights and women’s
groups to include women in its delegation in London.

Any delay in the definitive approval of the hijab by IFAB
could have implications for teams competing FIFA Under-17 Women's World Cup in
Baku in September – a move that would make Saudi Arabia appear less isolated.

FIFA insiders suggest that the soccer body’s president, Sepp
Blatter, widely believed to be a conservative Catholic, is ambiguous towards
the hijab. A former president in the 1970s of the World Society of Friends of
Suspenders that campaigns against women swapping their suspender belts for
pantyhose, Mr. Blatter famously said when asked in 2004 how to popularize
soccer: "Let the women play in more feminine clothes like they do in
volleyball. Female players are pretty, if you excuse me for saying so, and they
already have some different rules to men – such as playing with a lighter ball.
That decision was taken to create a more female aesthetic, so why not do it in
fashion?"

Mr. Blatter advised gays in 2010 after Qatar, a country that
bans homosexuality, was awarded the 2022 World Cup to “refrain from sexual
activities” during the tournament.

A meeting of the 17-member FIFA medical committee in the
wake of the IFAB decision focused on the threat of carotid sinus irritation - a
condition to which men over 50 rather than women are susceptible - that a head
dress could pose rather than on the danger of strangulation or heat emission,
according to persons familiar with the proceedings.

“If vigorous carotid sinus massage were performed by a
physician with knowledge of anatomy, it might cause minor slowing of the pulse
or possibly a brief pause in a healthy young athlete; however, even this
response would be blunted during the level of exertion expected during a
football game… it is extremely unlikely that a reasonable degree of carotid
pressure would have any effect. The risk of inducing loss of consciousness is
negligible. There is no reason to believe that a light headscarf with breakaway
attachments, such as Velcro or magnets, would exert effective occlusive pressure
simultaneously on both carotid arteries such as occurs when a choke hold is
used in Judo or hand to hand combat. In summary, there is no medical basis to
prevent women from playing football with sports headscarfs that are designed
for quick release in the event of inadvertent contact,” Dr. Lindsay wrote.

During the committee meeting, a female woman staffer was
asked to put on one of the designer’s head dresses. Committee members,
including three from the Arab world, pulled at the head dress, according to
persons familiar with the proceedings, on the basis of which the committee
declared it unsafe.

At a follow-up meeting called at Prince Ali’s request, designers
of head dresses for soccer players and representatives of testing institutions
briefed Dr. D’Hooghe and committee advisor Jiri Dvorak.

Dr. D’Hooghe advised FIFA on the basis of the two meetings
that designs presented to the medical committee had been deemed unsafe.

“We were shocked that he could write a recommendation on
that basis. We don’t know what prompted this or changed his mind,” said Michele
Cox, a director of Prince Ali’s foundation, Asian Football Development Project,
and a former member of FIFA’s women’s committee who attended the Amman meeting.

Prince Ali said in an interview that he has called on Dr. D’Hooghe
and Mr. Dvorak to explain their reversal and rejection of the head dress to
IFAB at its next meeting in July. Prince Ali said the hijab issue should be
addressed with the same sincerity FIFA approaches other issues such as goal
line technology and various designs should be rigorously tested on the pitch
for a period of time. “Let them do it properly,” Prince Ali said.

The IFAB meeting is likely to be a litmus test of Mr.
Blatter’s intentions. IFAB’s eight members -- four from FIFA as well as one
each from England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland – are appointed in advance of
each of its meetings. Dr. D’Hooghe is often one of the FIFA representatives
when IFAB discusses medical issues. FIFA has yet to announce who will represent
it at IFAB’s next meeting and if Dr. D’Hooghe is delegated whether he would be
attending as a decision making IFAB member or an expert witness.

James M. Dorsey is a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam
School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University in
Singapore, author of the blog, The Turbulent World of Middle East
Soccer, and a consultant to geopolitical consulting firm Wikistrat.

The Arab
world’s first free and fair presidential elections pose a dilemma and a wake-up
call for militant Egyptian soccer fans and revolutionary youth groups as the
two surviving candidates seek to win their votes in a run-off next month in
which a majority of the votes are up for grabs.

To many
analysts, the results of the first round of the elections that produced ousted
President Hosni Mubarak’s last prime minister Ahmed Shafiq and the Muslim
Brotherhood’s Mohammed Morsi as the two surviving candidates, illustrate the
marginalization of the revolutionaries and the soccer fans. Yet, a closer look
shows that the result constitutes both a
narrow defeat and an opportunity for those in Egypt yearning for real change
rather than an immediate restoration of stability in the face of growing
unemployment and rising street crime.

In a
country that 15 months after Mr. Mubarak’s departure has grown protest weary
and yearns for a return to economic growth and security, Messrs. Morsi and
Shafiq’s victory reflects the fact that they represent the two Egyptian forces
with an institutionalized political machinery and political experience. Mr.
Shafiq moreover benefitted from a state-owned media that portrayed the youth
and soccer fan groups as responsibility for the post-revolt instability and
economic decline.

Nonetheless,
the two candidates favored by the revolutionaries – independent Islamist Abdel
Moneim Abul Fotouh and Nasserist Hamdeen Sabahi – together won 40 per cent of
the vote. They failed to make it into the run-off because they split the vote
for change. “The Mubarak camp understood that for them this first round was now
or never. They had to win. We were divided in the spirit of democracy. We would
have won had we decided to support one candidate,” said a militant soccer fan.

In a
potentially explosive move, Mr. Sabahi has called for a partial vote recount,
citing violations that he says could change the outcome given that he failed to
make the cut for the run-off by a margin of only 700,000 votes. For their part,
Messrs. Morsi and Shafiq secured 49 per cent of the vote in a first round in
which 13 candidates stood for office. Mr. Morsi’s 25 per cent is a far cry from
the 46 per cent the Brotherhood won in last year’s parliamentary election.

As a
result, Messrs. Morsi and Shafiq focused barely 48 hours after the first round
on seeking to convince youth groups and soccer fans that they stand for change
rather than for preserving as much of Mr.

Mubarak’s repressive regime as
possible or an accommodation that would secure the role, privileges and perks
of Egypt’s transitory military rulers. Theirs are campaigns that are already
shaping up ones that play on people’s fears – the fear of the restoration of
the Mubarak regime versus the fear of Islamic rule. Nonetheless, swaying the
youth and soccer fan groups is likely to prove a tall order, albeit one that may
be easier for Mr. Morsi than for Mr. Shafiq.

For the
youth groups and soccer fans who were at the core of last year’s mass protests
that toppled Mr.

Mubarak and since then fought pitched street battles against
security forces in a bid to force the
military to return to its barracks Mr. Shafiq is unpalatable. Mr. Morsi, with
youth groups and militant, highly politicized, well organized violence-prone,
street battled-hardened soccer fan groups or ultras debating whether to rally
behind the Muslim Brotherhood leader or boycott the next election, stands a
reasonable chance of securing at least a segment of the revolutionary vote. Nonetheless,
it remains for the youth and soccer fan groups a choice between two evils.

Mr. Shafiq,
who was forced to resign shortly after the toppling of Mr. Mubarak defended the
former president’s regime long after his departure and made criticism of the
revolt a pillar of his first round election campaign, sought this weekend to
assure the youth groups, soccer fans and undecided voters that he intended to realize
the goals of their revolt. He vowed that there would be no "recreation of
the old regime" and said he was “fed up with being labeled 'old regime’. All
Egyptians are part of the old regime," he said.

That is
unlikely to cut him much slack with youth groups and soccer fans who see him as
co-responsible for the bloody street battles with security forces and
pro-Mubarak thugs in which hundreds of people were killed in the walk-up to the
ousting of the president. Mr. Shafiq was appointed prime minister by Mr.
Mubarak four days after last year’s protests erupted in a last ditch attempt to
squash the demonstrations and left office barely two weeks after the president
was ousted.

Addressing
the youth groups and soccer fans in an about face at a news conference this
weekend, Mr. Shafiq said: "Your revolution has been hijacked. I pledge to
bring its fruits between your hands. Egypt has changed and there will be no
turning back the clock. We have had a glorious revolution. I pay tribute to
this glorious revolution and pledge to be faithful to its call for justice and
freedom."

If Mr.
Shafiq’s legacy is one that he will find hard to live down, Mr. Morsi will have
to alter the perception that youth and soccer fan groups believe that the
Brotherhood’s repeated willingness to accommodate the military in the
post-revolt phase, including its backing for last year’s March 19 referendum on
constitutional amendments, helped derail their revolt aimed at achieving social
justice and greater freedom.

That
referendum among others contributed to a situation in which decisions of the five-member
Elections Committee, headed by an obscure judge originally appointed by Mr.
Mubarak to oversee his son’s succession and whose deputy is a judge believed to
be close to the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, are final and
cannot be appealed. It also has led to a president being elected without his
powers being defined by a constitution that has yet to be drafted.

“Morsi has
a lot to answer for. He nonetheless stands a fighting chance to convince at
least some of us that he is the better of two evils. Shafiq will appeal to
those who want a return to stability and an end to the revolution. But he won’t
find any buyers among the youth and the ultras,” said one militant soccer fan
who is a yet undecided whether he will vote in next month’s run-off.

James M. Dorsey is a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam
School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University in
Singapore, author of the blog, The Turbulent World of Middle East
Soccer, and a consultant to geopolitical consulting firm Wikistrat.

Saturday, May 26, 2012

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The question for Qatari sprinter Noor al-Malki is not
whether she will be part of the first group of Qatari women to ever compete in
a global sports tournament at the 2012 London Olympics but how she will handle
the fact that the competition will take place during Ramadan.

The question whether Ms. Al-Malki would be able to compete
was resolved when Qatar, alongside Saudi Arabia and Brunei the only nation
never to have been represented by women in a global sporting event, decided
last year to allow women to compete in the London Olympics.

The decision was the result of Qatar’s concerted effort to
become a sports power and mounting international pressure on the International Olympic
Committee (IOC), not to allow countries to compete that discriminate against
athletes on the basis of gender.

It saved Qatar, already threatened with a global trade union
campaign against its hosting of the 2022 World Cup because of the conditions
under which it employs foreign labour, from becoming the target of yet another
attack on its reputation, already dented by controversy over its successful campaign
to win the right to host the World Cup. The bruising debate over the soccer
tournament bid contributed to the International Olympic Committee’s decision to
eliminate Qatar as a candidate for the 2020 Olympics.

The debate also highlights the major divide among Wahhabis,
followers of 18th century puritan warrior priest Mohammed Abdul Wahhab, with
Saudi Arabia, the only other country besides Qatar with a majority Wahhabi
population, and the IOC still struggling barely two months before the opening
of the London Olympics to find a formula that would circumvent the kingdom’s
conservative opposition to women’s participation.

A Human Rights Watch report released in February, called on
Saudi Arabia to protect women's equal right to sports and urged the IOC to live
up to its charter, which prohibits discrimination, or face a ban similar to
that imposed on Afghanistan in 1999 partly for its exclusion of female
athletes.

For Ms. Al-Malki, the Qatari decision means that she is
grappling beyond wanting to perform at the London Olympics with the requirement
to fast during the 30 days of Ramadan during which the tournament will be held.
If the decision to allow women to compete may have been difficult because of
mounting conservative opposition to Qatari Emir Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani’s
liberal policies designed to position his tiny gas-rich Gulf state on the world
map, resolving the issue of Ramadan coinciding with the Olympics is easy.

While Islamic law does not grant athletes dispensation from
fasting during Ramadan, it does allow travellers to break the fast during their
journey provided they catch up once they return home. Ms. Al-Malki will be
travelling during the Olympics.

That is a luxurious position to be in compared to her Saudi
counterparts who still do not know whether they will be going to London.
Initial Saudi suggestions that the kingdom would for the first time send female
athletes to the Olympics were dashed when Saudi Crown Prince Nayef bin
Abdul-Aziz Al Saud declared in April that “female sports activity has not
existed (in the kingdom) and there is no move thereto in this regard. At
present, we are not embracing any female Saudi participation in the Olympics or
other international championships.”

The IOC has rejected Saudi suggestions that Saudi women
living abroad be allowed to compete under the Olympic flag rather than as part
of the official Saudi delegation.

"It's not an easy situation. There is a commitment.
We're working steadily with them to find a good solution,” conceded IOC
President Jacques Rogge at a recent news conference. "We are continuing to
discuss with them, and the athletes are trying (to qualify). We would hope they
will qualify in due time for the games."

With few Saudi women athletes likely to qualify for the Olympics,
the IOC has gone out of its way to encourage participation by suggesting that
they would be exempted from qualifying standards and granted entry under
special circumstances.

Saudi women participation appears however increasingly
unlikely with conservative opposition making it difficult for the government to
back down at a time that it is rallying the wagons to shield itself against the
wave of anti-government protests in the Middle East and North Africa that has
already sparked increased political activism and mobilisation in the kingdom.
At his news conference, Mr. Rogge declined to discuss possible penalties if the
kingdom refused to include women in its Olympic team.

The Saudi government has recently employed the clergy to
condemn the protests that have already toppled the autocratic leaders of Tunisia,
Egypt, Libya and Yemen and brought Syria to the brink of civil war, which,
according to some, are the result of the mingling of the sexes in sports.

Saudi Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdulaziz Al-Sheikh denounced the
protests earlier this month as sinful. "The schism, instability, the
malfunctioning of security and the breakdown of unity that Islamic countries
are facing these days is a result of the sins of the public and their
transgressions," Sheikh Abdulaziz said.

Such sins include, according to Imam Abu Abdellah of
As-Sunnah mosque in Kissimee, Florida, speaking in a video posted on the
Internet, the mixing of the sexes at sports events. “In the past it was only
men, now it is almost half half (in stadiums). Allah knows what happens
afterwards. Either way it is bad. Either people go out, they are sensing and
partying and drinking and all that, so that’s negative. And if they don’t, they
go out and they demonstrate and they’re angry and they destroy property and
they destroy cars and they destroy people’s business. Either way its haram
(forbidden), things have to be done in moderation,” Abu Abedallah said.

Sheikh Abdullah bin Suleiman Al Manei, a member of the Gulf
Kingdom’s supreme scholars committee and an advisor to King Abdullah warned
that “the spread of such (bad) acts on play fields is a clear indicator of a
decline in moral values and the transformation of sport from fair competition
into bigotry.”

James M. Dorsey is a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam
School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University in
Singapore, author of the blog, The Turbulent World of Middle East
Soccer, and a consultant to geopolitical consulting firm Wikistrat.

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About Me

James M DorseyWelcome to The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer by James M. Dorsey, a senior fellow at Nanyang Technological University’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies. Soccer in the Middle East and North Africa is played as much on as off the pitch. Stadiums are a symbol of the battle for political freedom; economic opportunity; ethnic, religious and national identity; and gender rights. Alongside the mosque, the stadium was until the Arab revolt erupted in late 2010 the only alternative public space for venting pent-up anger and frustration. It was the training ground in countries like Egypt and Tunisia where militant fans prepared for a day in which their organization and street battle experience would serve them in the showdown with autocratic rulers. Soccer has its own unique thrill – a high-stakes game of cat and mouse between militants and security forces and a struggle for a trophy grander than the FIFA World Cup: the future of a region. This blog explores the role of soccer at a time of transition from autocratic rule to a more open society. It also features James’s daily political comment on the region’s developments. Contact: incoherentblog@gmail.comView my complete profile